1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an active pellet without chemical additives.
2. Description of Related Art
A liquid lamination process, a powder lamination process or extrusion with spheroization can be utilized to form typical pellets. The liquid lamination process includes the steps of dissolving an active ingredient in a solvent and adding a polymer binder, adhering viscous fluid over a core by a spray-drying process, and forming the pellets of multiplayer by a lamination process. The powder lamination process includes spraying the polymer binder on a powder, and then laminating multi-layers to form the pellets. The polymer binder is also applied during performing extrusion with spheroization in favor of shaping. However, the polymer binder belongs to a artificial chemical additive, which has no benefit to human bodies.
A typical active powder is formed by extracting and drying an active ingredient. Nevertheless, the active powder has various sizes, and the diameter thereof is no more than about 100 μm. The shape of the powder may be in a form of needles, flakes, irregular-shaped objects or round particles. The active powder is easy to absorb moisture to become viscous and generate mucus, and thus it is not easy to flow. If the powder needs to employ further processing, lubricant (e.g., talc, magnesium stearate, and etc.) is needed to add thereinto to facilitate the flowing. The lubricant is utilized to cover the surface of the active powder to make it smooth to flow. However, the lubricant not only affects disintegration and solubility of the active ingredient in the formulation but also cause burden to the human body.
In addition, to improve the characteristics of the formulation, other to chemical additives may be added. As an example, preservatives are added to enhance stability. Flavoring agent, spices or artificial colors are used to change flavor and appearance. Also, a disintegrating agent can be added to adjust disintegration rate.
From the above, chemical additives may be used during the process for manufacturing traditional pellets or formulations; also, other chemical additives may be added to improve the characteristics of the formulation. However, long-term taking the formulation containing chemical additives may have adverse effects to the human body.
Therefore, there is a need for an active pellet free of any artificial chemical additive but still with good workability, such that it does not require any chemical additives during formulation.